(NW) Taste Buds Don't Lie at USBTC

Manchester, NH - Announced on October 1st (and completely under the radar) the United States Beer Tasting Championship recently completed their 15th Annual competition voting. Over 379 beers were submitted from over 137 breweries. In the end thirty considerations were given to the Northwest (including three for Kona of Hawaii courtesy of the Craft Brewer's Alliance). In the end only Pike Brewing (Seattle, WA), Ninkasi Brewing (Eugene, OR), and Rogue Ales (Newport, OR) brought back Grand Champion recognition for the Northwest.

About the United States Beer Tasting Championship

“The USBTC takes a unique approach in that its competition is held in multiple stages. Sequential field trials are conducted wherein judges evaluate beers and select the best to advance to subsequent rounds. This allows beers to be judged in relatively small flights while ensuring that the best beers are still determined through head-to-head competition. All beers were tasted in blinded fashion and judged on a hedonic scale.

The USBTC recognizes that American brewers are continually establishing new beer styles and reviving interest in classic styles. As one way to acknowledge this, the USBTC devotes “pull-out” categories in each competition to styles that are currently emerging or being faithfully carried on. In our most recent event, “Loose Lager” was selected as the USBTC pull-out category.” –source, USBTC.com

A fully comprehensive list of the names are posted below for your review. If you want to see the names of the other winners by region go here.